Season 2 of Landman is about to kick off as part of the 2025 TV schedule, and I can’t wait. Season 1 of the Paramount+ show was a surprise for me. I had kind of run the course with Taylor Sheridan after burning out on Yellowstone. However, I love Landman. I love the characters, I love the setting, and I love the chaos that Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) quells time after time. There is one thing that frustrated me about Season 1. Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) and Angela (Ali Lauter) really had a weak storyline in the back half of the season, and I hope they get more to do in Season 2.
Both Characters Started Strong
At the beginning of the season, both Ainsley and Angela were strong characters. Ainsley was the troublemaking daughter who drove her father, Tommy, crazy with her adolescent adventures. As a pretty typical teenager, she drove her father up a wall with her partying and dating. Angela was a strong-willed ex-wife to Tommy, who also drove him crazy, both positively and negatively. By about the midpoint of the season, both had moved in with Tommy, and the stress of his personal life matched the stress of his job.
They were so much fun. The usually unflappable Tommy was constantly at his wits’ end with both of them, and yet, his love for both kept him from dismissing them. The family dynamic added a great layer to the show, and while that never really went away on the surface, it felt like by the second half of the season, the writers just ran out of ways to keep Ainsley and Angela occupied.
The Nursing Home Story Was Lame
In the second half of the season, it really felt like the writers found themselves in a spot where they weren’t sure what to do with Angela and Ainsley, so they gave them a completely pointless storyline about volunteering at a nursing home in some, shall we say, provocative ways. What started on a whim when the two were driving past the facility became a big B-plotline for the show.
There were funny moments, for sure. Taking old folks to a strip club is an easy way to build in some good jokes, but it did nothing for the characters in the overall arc of the show. It reduced them to comic relief when they had been so much more earlier in the season. Needling Tommy and forcing him into uncomfortable situations is what made these characters great, not day drinking and playing saucy games at a nursing home. It was all such a disappointment for me.
So, I’m here to hope and pray that Season 2 brings them back to their roots in the show—selfish and provocative members of Tommy’s inner circle. Landman kicks off next month, and you can see if my hopes are fulfilled with a Paramount+ subscription. Either way, it’s going to be a great season, I think.